


Missing the Juniberries

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:42:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9919265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Yeah so I tried posting this before but their was some technical difficulties so I said "screw it" and just reuploaed it





	

The whole team could feel it, the tension in the castle, everyone on edge, snapping at each other over the simplest of things. The copious amount of battling that was almost nonstop with the Galra and constant anticipation for the next battle edging everyone on more and more until they could barely handle a simple mission briefing. Shiro had enough and called everyone into the training room after Lance and Keith’s routine Fight which got more vicious than normal getting to the point of physical violence when Keith started throwing punches and lance pulling his hair, and Hunk and Coran serving the breakfast for the morning.  
As Shiro entered the training deck with Coran, who had to clean up the food that spilled during lance and Keith’s fight, they saw the other Paladins and Allura who were lined up begrudgingly, Showing disdain towards working together on another task yet again.“All right everyone, I understand these last couple of weeks have been hard on all of us, so we’re going to do a simple bonding exercise with the helmets.” His loud voice rang out across the training deck over the protesting groans of the other Paladins “This includes Coran and Allura” Before either of them could try to protest he added “We’ve seen how stressed you’ve both been. Now come get a helmet and join us.”  
Allura went to grab a helmet first after the shock of Shiro ordering them both around wore off. Coran was the second to step forward, Lance was the only one to notice how hesitant He was with taking one, Even if the hesitance only lasted a second He still flashed Coran a look of concern.  
Once everyone was sat in a circle they began the training. “Alright everyone, We’re all going to think about a happy memory and share it with each other” “Yeah Mullet something happy, Not your usual depressing memories,” Lance remarked making Keith open his eyes and send a glare in the Cuban boy’s direction. “Call me Mullet one more time and see where this foot goes you piece of s-” “THAT’S ENOUGH!” To everyone’s surprise, it was pidge who put an end to the fight.  
"I’m tired of you both being at each other’s throats every chance you get" Her messy hair looked like it was in even more disarray than usual and her glasses were crooked. “Lance, apologize to Keith or I swear to sweet god.” If looks could kill, lance would have been obliterated. A loud gulp echoed around the room as lance looked back towards his rival “Sorry Mu- I mean Keith.” Keith smiled in triumph and lance had to hold his tongue before he said something that would cause the anger of Pidge to be directed toward him.  
"If you’re both done can we please get on with it, I want to try out one of my grandmothers old cooking recipes.“ Hunk, who has been a lot quieter lately since the frequent Galra attacks.  
As everyone went back to their starting positions they suddenly felt calm and at peace. They could hear the sound of waves crashing and could feel warm sunlight Casting down onto their bodies. Soon they could feel the coarse sand under their feet accompanied by the laughter of a happy family. Lance, This was lances memory and everyone was at much more ease than they were before.  
The second memory they felt was surprisingly from Keith. They could feel themselves smiling when they felt the happiness radiating off him. They smelt something citrus almost like a lemon but sweeter. It was most likely the hallways of the Garrison after a fresh cleaning. Then they could hear talking and soon recognized the voices as shiro and Keith. They couldn’t make out the words but could see shiro and Keith smiling at each other. They both looked much younger with shiro missing the white hair they recognize him as having.  
Soon that memory faded and was replaced with another memory. This one Felt colder than the others. With a cool breeze that chills each of them down to the bone. Then they feel heavy as if they were layered in clothing but they were warmer than before.  
Next, they smell crisp winter air and then pine like a tree was cut down in front of them. When they can all see the memory it’s in the middle of a snowy clearing with a small house ahead of them. Everyone jumps when a ball of snow comes hurling at their faces and then a shriek but then they can hear Loud laughter from a voice no one recognizes. Then they see someone who looks almost exactly Like Pidge except they’re taller. Then They feel excited as the bent down to pick up snow and throw it at the other.  
The next memory was Hunks. They can hear the crackling of a fireplace and feel Happy and at ease. Then they can smell something absolutely delicious, no one can pinpoint exactly what they are smelling but it’s making them all hungry, Then they can see they are seated at a table with plates of food in front of them. Along with this, they can hear the quiet chatter of older family members and the pitter patter of the younger children running around the kitchen. This is clearly Hunks memory and it makes everyone feel loved.<  
Once that fades out It’s replaced with a cramped room, This makes them uncomfortable but is then replaced with Laughter and joy. They can feel the laughter bubbling up in their chest’s but they don’t know why. When they see why they understand why they feel so happy. They are aboard a spaceship flinging what looks like peas at some blurry faces. Then the blurriness clear and they recognize it as Matt Holt and Matt’s father. This was definitely Shiro’s memory.  
This memory doesn’t last as long but leaves them all feeling like they just had the best time of their lives. The next Memory Leaves them feeling calm and at peace, Then they feel two pairs of strong arms wrapped around them. Then a quiet singing from a woman and the deep humming voice of a man. They can’t understand the words but It makes them feel sleepy. When they can see Coran recognizes it as the queen and the king holding their daughter close and it makes him smile.  
That memory fades and replaces itself with a quiet memory. They can feel grass against their backs and can feel a warm breeze roll over them. They can smell something sweet and fragrant that makes them smile. Then they hear the sound of laughter and some high pitched whistling sound. When the darkness clears they see a Blue sky with feathery clouds in the sky and large creature almost like birds except they appear to have a dog like body covered in feathers. He can feel the sudden happiness radiating off of Allura when they could finally see. It made her feel like she was back home.  
After each memory, they start to talk about their home lives.They still have their eyes closed and everyone is asking each other questions as they look into each other’s memories. Allura was more than happy to answer the questions but Lance could hear the quiet undertone of sadness in her voice.  
Lance is the only one who notices something strange while everyone is preoccupied, he notices Coran is being surprisingly silent. He focuses his mind on Coran and see’s the same memory but instead of laying down he’s standing up and looking down a hill at a group of children Playing in a field of Flowers Lance thinks they’re Juniberry flowers because of the sweet smell. Suddenly he feels a deep fear rising from his chest making him feel sick.  
Suddenly He can hear loud screaming as the sky turns into a deep blood of red and he can see smoke in the sky rising from the city in front of the clearing. He can hear the yelling and suddenly " "Dad? Dad! Daddy Where are you? I’m scared.” He can hear the yelling of a small Girl This is the only memory that he can clearly make out the voices. He can feel a deep sadness and then realizes that this must be Corans child. Suddenly the Memory flashes and is replaced with another one this times he’s moving. Running towards what looks like a hospital in the cracked streets. Once he reaches the door he suddenly hears him speaking. “Where is my daughter?” He can feel and hear the sadness in Corans voice when he says those words. He see’s a nurse run out to speak with him from one of the rooms.  
"Sir come in she was brought in an hour.“ ” Is she alive?“ "Yes and we’re doing everything we can but the wound was already to infected to put her in a healing pod” he was brought into another room they saw a girl hooked up to strange looking Altean medical equipment, Her breathing was hoarse and easy to hear. “Thebe!” He suddenly shouted toward the girl and gave her a light hug being careful to mind the once white bandages that now run a deep red color that was wrapped around her chest.  
"Pop!“ Her scratchy voice stung his ears but he paid it no mind intent to see what was going to happen. “ I did exactly as they said pop… Protect the king at all cost” He could feel his eyes sting with hot tears as he felt Coran Start breaking down in the memory. “I know, I know, I’m Proud of you but please… Use your strength to stay alive. I can’t lose you. Please.”  
He can’t watch anymore as he suddenly feels the sadness and fear from Coran affecting the other paladins. So He starts to think of his happiest memories trying to gain the attention of the other paladins.  
It works for a few minutes before Coran’s sadness hits all of them. He see’s everyone’s saddest memory. Pidge seeing her missing brother and father on the tv and then destroying the projects they worked on together in her rage, Shiro watching them get dragged away, Hunk watching the funeral of his grandmother, Keith being alone in the desert, and then Allura hearing her father making gruesome decision’s to try and win the war. Then his memory starts to flash.  
It flashes to him being bullied by his old schoolmates. They would kick and punch at him until he was almost unconscious. It was for no other reason except that he was different in nationality not a lot of people know this but he’s actually Cuban despite his lack of an accent which was a lot thicker when he was in grade school. He tries to snap out of this memory before the other paladins notice. But he doesn’t have to try for long.  
In the middle of trying to go back to the beach memory, he hears a choked sob from in front of him. Then He was ripped out of the memory they were in and thrown back into the real world just in time to see Coran running out of the training room and into the hallway with the door closing shut behind him. They can hear the gasps and quiet sobbing as he makes his way further down the hall until it’s silent. The only sound they can hear is each other’s ragged breathing as they look at the broken helmet on the floor.  
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At that moment Coran saw his memory flashed he tried to change it, he really did, but it just wouldn’t go away. He ran away as fast as he could from the rest of the paladins. He couldn’t see through his tears but he worked in the castle long enough to be able to navigate it with his eyes closed.  
It wasn’t until he could hear the fast and heavy footsteps of Shiro that he picked up his speed and ran quicker than he ever has. Quickly he turned down the hallway that led to the old green and yellow paladins combined laboratory. When he found the old and dusty corridor he put a temporary Hologram on the hallway entrance using an old piece of technology which can project what’s around it to match the area. which he hoped would deter the paladins from finding him while he cooled off.  
He sat down at the small desk the green paladin had. She was on of his best friend and would tell him everything that happened that day. He would sit with her and look through photo albums and talk about the story behind each picture. He picked up the photo album that was in one of the open drawers and began to look at the pictures. Some of them were loose and slipped out of the pages but he decided he could pick them up later. He looked at the pictures of his wife Elaine and remembers her glowing smile and bright eyes. His eyes tear up even more at the thought of his now deceased wife and close the book.  
The next thing he notices on the desk was an old journal from the green paladin and remembers how small she was and how he could pick her up with one arm if he wanted to. Her long ears were always perked and listening to those around her. Dara. Her name was Dara and she was one of the smartest aliens Coran knew. She was a small creature on about 2 feet in height and furry, but her spunkiness covered for her lack of height. Coran picked up the small journal she had kept to write about her time as a paladin of Voltron. He opened the aged book that stood up to the test of time and opened to the middle of the book. The yellowing pages had small burn marks on them probably from one of her experiments. He let out a small sob as he looked at her familiar scratchy writing that described how she had to sit on a pile of books in order to take part in the weekly meeting the paladins had. Coran curled up onto the old leather chair and read what Dara had written. It lets him remember when Altea was still a thriving planet and his family was still alive. It makes him miss it and he can’t help the shuddering sob that racks his body when he thinks about it.

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"That was intense" Hunk whispers quietly more to himself than anyone else. “Yeah, everyone else saw what Coran was seeing to, right?” Pidge looked up scanning the worried faces of the rest of the group. “….Should we follow him?” Keith asked Shiro who was still staring in shock at the now closed door. “…Yes” was all he said as he took a moment to respond before shooting into a standing position and darting out the door to try and keep up with their now missing friend. The rest quickly scrambled up and ran after Shiro.  
They found him in roughly Five minutes on the floor in kneeling position breathing heavily. “Shiro, you alright buddy?” Hunk asked cautiously as he see’s their leader on the floor looking exhausted. “I’m fine just a little tired. Coran can run surprisingly fast.” Shiro said as he took a deep breath before grabbing onto Hunks shoulder, who was closest to him at the time, and hoisted himself back into a standing position. Allura broke the silence that started to surround the Paladins “We need to find Coran before he hurts himself. Shiro, where did you see him go?” “He ran down that hallway,” he said gesturing with his robotic arm. “Then we have no time to lose. Let’s go find him.” She said walking in front of Shiro and taking the lead.  
They walked for what seemed like hours, checking every room they passed and still they found nothing, just a dead end. Pidge who was slowly losing Her patience Had enough and finally lost temper “THIS IS RIDICULOUS WE’VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR OVER AN HOUR AND STILL NO SIGN OF CORAN!“ She yelled and kicked a wall closest to her. But instead of being an empty wall her foot went right through it. in The paladins looked one in awe when Allura bent down to examine where the apparent hole was and walked right through it. "A hologram…?, Guys it’s safe there’s another hallway down here!” They all followed after her still amazed at the nonexistent wall.  
The paladins entered an old hallway that looks like no one has taken care of it recently. There was dust covering every inch of the long forgotten Corridor, except for a small, barely noticeable set of footprints leading towards a staircase ahead of them. As they moved farther down the stairs the sound of sniffling and soft weeping could be heard behind the door the footprints end at. Each of them slowly crept towards the door and silently cracked it open.  
They looked inside and see an old room that looks like it was used as a laboratory of sorts. There where metals bits that look untouched.”The old paladin's lab…” Allura muttered to herself. She couldn’t remember much since the only time she was down there was when she was a young girl, however, the memories she did have were times of joy and laughter to her it was strange to see the room so empty when she was so used to seeing it full of energy from Dara. When Lance’s eyes adjusted he was able to see the small picture on the floor and could make out the faces of Coran and the girl, Thebe, with an unknown woman with brown hair that was pulled into a messy bun. That woman must have been Corans wife. They looked so happy and Corans eyes were bright and full of energy like he didn’t have a care in the world.  
Another picture was from the same scene he saw in Coran’s memory. The bright green hill and the beautiful blue sky stretching out for miles. The city in the distance was beautiful It looked to be made out of steel and the white metal gleamed in the sunlight. The picture depicted Thebe who’s red facial markings almost glowed and matched the color of his wife’s red facial marks. They were under a large tree with the Juniberries surrounding them. Another sob louder than the ones before broke him out of his thoughts.  
When he looked up to see the other paladins expression they all held a face of sadness and he could feel Keith’s anxiety with not knowing how to handle the situation. When he looked back into the room he could see the signature orange hair that gave away where he was hidden. He was curled up in an old leather chair and seemed to be holding something. It looked like a journal that was handmade with a leather cover that was dull and faded to the point where it began to lose the brown color and turn a more gray one. Coran was reading the scratchy writing and seemed to hold it tightly. Almost as if he thought that if he let the journal go it would be taken from him.  
The sobbing returned and the paladins couldn’t stand to hear his broken sobs again. Hunk was the first to step fully into the room but quietly as to not alert Coran that he was there. His eyes widened when he looked at all the pictures of the happy family and it hit him how much Coran actually lost. None of them could comprehend how horrible it must feel to literally lose everything. Soon they were all piled into the room watching to see if Coran noticed them. He continued to try and quietly cry and was sniffling every time he was silent.  
Hunk was the first to speak and alert him to their presence “….Coran?” That was enough to make him jump up and attempt to once again hide his sadness. “Ah! The paladins! when did you get here?” They could tell hear the crack in his voice when he asked that, and how he started to frantically wipe at his eyes when they started to water again.  
Lance said nothing as he walked forward and embraced Coran in a tight hug. He could feel him shudder as more sobs tried to escape him “Shhh. it’s okay you’re okay we’re here.” He said in an attempt to comfort him. Then there was another set of arms wrapping around can. To Corans surprise it was Keith who had tears in his eyes but if anyone asked he would deny it. Soon everyone joined in trying to comfort the older man who was now crying into Lance’s shoulder.  
He calmed down soon enough and all that they could hear were sad quiet whimpers. Once he could stand without trembling like he was before, Lance leads him back up the stairs and into the break room where he was able to sit down on one of the padded seats with Pidge and Allura at his sides trying to make him smile again. They all gave him one last hug before Lance, Hunk, Keith and shiro all nodded and left the room. Keith and Lance were the first to return to the room holding as many blankets and pillows as they could, they were smiling at each other. If anyone was paying attention to them they might have seen that they are finally getting along again.  
Keith and lance worked together on putting the pillows on the ground and making a fort like structure, much to the confusion of Allura who was wondering what they could possibly be doing instead of helping Coran. Pidge, however, smiled at the two, knowing exactly what they planned on doing.  
Shiro came back next holding a bag which he placed on the ground outside the fort. When he opened it he took out multiple books and placed them on the pillows. The next thing he took out where some pencils and paper and placed them next to the books. Once everything was in place he looked over toward pidge who nodded and smiled at him. Pidge led Coran into a standing position and moved him down onto the pillows. He let out a confused grunt at the movement and only looked up just then noticing where he was. Before he could say anything a heavy blanket was dropped around his shoulders making him jump in surprise. He relaxed when he saw the smiling faces of the remaining paladins and wrapped the blanket tighter around himself.  
Hunk was the last to come back carrying a tray filled with seven steaming mugs and a plate of freshly baked cookies. He smiled when he saw how happy everyone looked surrounding Coran in a giant group hug. Hunk alerted them with a small cough and started to pass the steaming mugs out. It tasted like hot chocolate except it was creamier and a little sweeter. Next, he laid the tray of cookies in front of everyone and laid down to join him.  
Once Coran stopped whimpering and the room was cast into silence with the only sound being the mice scuttling around and the slurping of hot chocolate, Keith was the first to speak. “Coran, could tell us about Altea?” Coran looked over at him and smiled, brighter than he has all day, his facial marking appeared to glow before he started his story. “The land was beautiful…” “It wasn’t just beautiful It was the most amazing thing anyone could ever see” Allura piped in making Coran smile at her before he continued his story  
Three hours after their drinks were finished and the cookies were eaten, they were all piled on the floor as close to each other as possible. The stories Coran told were surprisingly nice and full of energy and he seemed to get happier with each story he told. Eventually, the stories stopped and then the quiet talking among the paladins was halted and they were left to fall asleep one by one. The sleep they got that night was the best night of rest they had in weeks and the first day the alarms hadn’t gone off to alert them of an attack. For once they were content to just to listen to each others breathing before they inevitably passed out from the exhaustion of the day.  
Within the next 4 hours, Coran woke up. Confused and dazed he tried to stand up but found that he was being held down. He looked around confused and saw the people holding him down where Hunk and Lance both who were snoring quietly. He saw them and then the rest of the paladins all curled into a pile surrounding him. He laid back down and closed his eyes and thought that maybe he doesn’t need to be a strong emotional support for them all the time.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so I tried posting this before but their was some technical difficulties so I said "screw it" and just reuploaed it


End file.
